


back into place

by YourPalYourBuddy



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Getting Together, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pining, Snapshots, dislocated shoulders, like basically that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22998274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourPalYourBuddy/pseuds/YourPalYourBuddy
Summary: And Dex knows him, so he knows he’s messing with him. In a friendly way. And Dex knows there’s nothing hot about relocating joints, but. He’s rarely touched Nursey, let alone Nursey’s arms, let alone when Nursey isn’t wearing a shirt.You saved me, Dexy.Okay.“Go to bed,” Dex says, because there’s nothing safe to say to that.He thinks Nursey blows him a kiss before climbing back up the bunk bed. He thinks he can still feel him under his fingers.Dex hugs his pillow and fumes._________________________NurseyDex from Dex's POV in which Nursey's shoulder joints suck and constantly have to be relocated, if that's your cup of tea. Born of a conversation w pertainstothesea :)
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 42
Kudos: 275





	back into place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pertainstothesea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pertainstothesea/gifts).



> yes Marina I should be asleep

________________________

Nursey falls out of the bunkbed their first night in their new room. For a brief, glorious moment, Dex thinks he’s somehow still asleep. Nursey sleeps like a brick and always has, and there’s no noise other than the reverberating  _ thump _ of a giant defenseman meeting wood floor. Dex should — Dex should check on him, probably, but also — Dex doesn’t sleep well sharing a room, especially when it’s with someone like  _ Nursey, _ and he’s so tired.

Then: “Dex?”

_ No. _ “Tell me you didn’t give yourself a concussion,” Dex says. His voice comes out muffled through his blanket.

Nursey doesn’t answer. Dex exhales loudly and turns over, glaring squintily out toward the center of the room. A lamp pops on suddenly in the corner. Light stabs Dex’s eyes before he buries his head under the blankets. 

He says, “Fuck you, Nurse.” Some floorboards shift. “If you aren’t dying I swear on everything I’m gonna—”

“I need you to put my arm back,” Nursey says. 

Dex slowly pushes away his blankets. It’s still hard to see, but from what he can tell Nursey’s arms are still attached to his body. 

“What?” 

“My arm,” he repeats. “My joints suck and my arm dislocates, like, all the time.”

Dex sits up. “Why haven’t I heard about this before.”

He can’t see but he’d bet money Nursey is rolling his eyes. “Because, Pointdexter, you aren’t the one I usually go to when my arm falls off.”

“Fuck,” Dex says. He’s  _ not _ hyperventilating right now. He will  _ not _ . “Fuck shit fuck okay, how do I do this?”

Nursey talks him through it, talking low and soothing like Dex was the one whose arm wasn’t where it’s supposed to be. Dex applies pressure where Nursey needs it, Nursey lifts his arm, and then— 

_ Pop. _

“Oh,” Dex says faintly, dropping his hand. “Is that — was that supposed to happen?”

“Yeah,” Nursey says. He swings his arm, flexes his fingers. “Thank you.”

Dex nods. “Do you like. I mean, I can drive, if you want.”

“Hmm?”

“The hospital?”

Nursey laughs. “Nah, we got it back in time. If it had swollen then we’d be in trouble, but. You saved me, Dexy.” 

And Dex knows him, so he knows he’s messing with him. In a friendly way. And Dex knows there’s nothing hot about relocating joints, but. He’s rarely touched Nursey, let alone Nursey’s arms, let alone when Nursey isn’t wearing a shirt.  _ You saved me, Dexy. _ Okay.

“Go to bed,” Dex says, because there’s nothing safe to say to that.

He thinks Nursey blows him a kiss before climbing back up the bunk bed. He thinks he can still feel him under his fingers.

Dex hugs his pillow and fumes.

____________

The next time it happens, they’re playing Rennesaler on home ice and Dex is so fucking close to brawling over it. It’s a dirty fucking hit, it is, even Bitty’s ready to drop gloves, and Nursey’s balled up on the ice looking so small. 

Dex calls for a trainer and skates over, purposefully brushing by the guy who check him in the hopes that maybe the guy will swing first so Dex won’t be disqualified, but the guy just sneers and steps out of his way. 

“Hey,” Dex says, crouching next to Nursey’s head. “Hey, you okay?”

“Fucked my shoulder again,” Nursey mumbles. A huge wave of relief floods over Dex’s whole body; if he’s talking he can breathe, and if he’s breathing he has a pulse, and if he has a pulse he’s alive. He’s gonna be okay. 

“Trainer’s here, Nurse,” Dex says. A hand on his shoulder; Bitty jerks his head to say  _ give them space. _ “Don’t worry, okay? We got you. Sarah’s really good, she’ll get you put together alright.”

Dex and Bitty drift a few feet backwards while Sarah talks Nursey through the concussion checklist. Bitty can probably he’s seething, because he casually loops his arm around Dex’s waist. Just a reminder that they can’t afford any scraps right now. 

After what must be a thousand years, Nursey gets to his feet. Sarah supports him as best she can without jostling his hurt arm, but they don’t look stable. Dex skates over and props him up on the other side without thinking. Sarah nods at him while the crowd applauds them off the ice.

“I got it from here,” she says once they’re through the door. 

Dex hesitates. Nursey gives him a tight-lipped smile. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, we’re good. Go finish the game.”

“Score a goal for me,” Nursey calls after him. Dex nods.

He scores with five minutes left in the game, then sets up Bitty for a goal, and then, with thirty seconds left, thinks  _ fuck it _ and decks the guy who checked Nursey. It’s worth it for the way Nursey smiles when he says, “I said  _ a  _ goal, not a fucking Gordie Howe hatty, you goon.”

Dex shrugs. “How’s your arm?”

Nursey shrugs back. “Not terrible. Wasn’t worth playing on it, Sarah said I could’ve fucked it up even more.”

“There were ten minutes left anyway,” he says. “We’re shitty hockey players if we lost a three to one lead because of a bad hit. Had to win it for you.”

Nursey starts saying something like “It happens” but stops short at Dex’s last sentence.

Dex goes back to putting his shit in his bag so he isn’t so incredibly, stupidly, obviously blushing. 

“Huh,” Nursey says, but he doesn’t elaborate. Dex throws a ball of tape at him. 

____________

Nursey is made of straw. Must be. Dex tells him this the third time he sees him dislocate his arm — after falling during another piggyback race — and Nursey shrugs and immediately curses them both out. 

“Here,” Chowder says, and he pops Nursey’s arm back in like he’s a medical practitioner. Easy. Fluid. No hyperventilating. It’s not hard to guess who usually puts Nursey back together.

Dex isn’t jealous. The feeling of a joint going back into place isn’t one he likes, especially when it’s not his own joint. That one time he helped is more than enough for him, except for the fact that Chowder gets to touch him like that. It isn’t sexual at all, but it’s familiar. And maybe, possibly, Dex is jealous of that. Just that though. Nothing else.

____________

But oh, of course he’s jealous of more than that. Of course he is. He figures it out, finally, one morning when Nursey’s running late for one of his poetry classes. 

“Ah shit Dex have you seen my—”

“Mini fridge,” Dex says, because Nursey always leaves his notebook there.

Nursey scoops it into his backpack. “You’re the fucking best … wait, I know my pen was—”

“Behind your ear,” Dex says, because Nursey always forgets to cap his pens before putting them behind his ear. There’s always a line of ink somewhere on his neck because of it.

“You’re amazing, Dexy,” Nursey says gratefully. “Um, what about—”

“Your mom sent socks in that care package, remember? Also do your fucking laundry.”

Nursey continues to tornado through their room and Dex continues to call out where things are, because apparently he’s memorized Nursey’s habits over the last few weeks without even knowing. Nursey throws on a shirt because Dex reminds him and is out the door before Dex can mourn the loss of that one mole on Nursey’s left shoulder blade. 

Fucking pathetic is what it is. The room feels like Nursey took all the air with him.

Okay. It’s okay, Dex, he can get through this. It’ll be fine. He takes some deep breaths.

He’s halfway through a game plan  _ — don’t be alone with him, don’t look at him shirtless, don’t touch him when you don’t have to —  _ before he remembers they live in the same goddamn room and they share a goddamn locker room and they celly together, so everything’s gonna go to shit sooner or later. 

He presses the heels of his hands to his eyes. Maybe if he just  _ accidentally _ falls into a coma it’ll be fine. He could wake up with a new personality. Maybe he won’t be in love with Nursey anymore.

Except he glances at Nursey’s desk and spots Nursey’s favorite hat and knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that Nursey would be really happy if Dex brings him that hat later, and he knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that in this reality William Pointdexter is in love with Derek Nurse, irrespective of personality-changing comas. 

“Fuck,” he says to the room. The room is silent.

____________

“Chowder I’ll love you forever, just — please go with us, okay, I’ll owe you always,” Dex says. 

Chowder frowns. “You already love me forever,” he says. “Remember when I got that jock strap out of the showers?”

“Yeah, but this is like forever times two.”

“Nah,” Chowder says. “Look, it’s my anniversary weekend with Cait, she’s driving to the game anyway because we got a room — I can’t bail on this, I’m sorry.”

Dex bites his lip. “Okay,” he says. “Okay, yeah. That makes sense.”

Chowder pats him on the shoulder bracingly. “You won’t argue too much,” he says. “I already packed you both snacks. You guys get cranky when you’re hungry.”

“Thanks,” Dex says numbly, and Chowder pats him again before throwing his bag into Caitlin’s car. He watches the, drive off.

“You ready?” Nursey says brightly from the porch.

Dex says, “No,” feeling miserable, but they go anyway.

______

It was something with their bus company, Hall had said. They booked the wrong dates or it was too expensive or both, but in any case, they’re in charge of getting themselves to and from the games. Dex had been looking forward to sitting far away from Nursey on the bus and just zone out listening to an audiobook or something, but no. 

Everyone carpooled successfully aside from them. If Dex was paranoid he’d bet someone’s playing a prank on them, but there’s no way anyone knows about his crush. It’s probably forced bonding time. Bitty’s always been worried about their on ice connection. 

Dex drives. It’s not that long anyway, only two hours. Easy. And Nursey doesn’t talk that much, which is great because Dex is so fucking tense that he’d probably explode if Nursey kept up a conversation. It’s too much being alone with him. He resents Caitlin for exactly .32 seconds before remembering how good she is with Chowder, and then resents the fact that his car couldn’t take all four of them. Nursey’s probably could but he doesn’t trust Nursey behind the wheel.

“Did I do something?” Nursey asks. He sounds like he’s asking Dex to borrow some stick tape instead of asking about the one thing Dex was hoping he could keep to himself. 

“Why do you ask,” he says. He sounds like Nursey is taking slapshots at him without any goalie gear on.

He sees Nursey frown out of the corner of his eye. “You seem tense like we’re arguing, but I can’t remember what we’re arguing about.”

The GPS yells at him to turn. Dex turns. “We’re not arguing.”

“Your mouth is all tight like it is when we argue,” Nursey says. “Like that one time when we were talking about Princess Mia and Michael from the first movie, and how they should’ve been together.”

“I still don’t think he would’ve liked it, he’s a musician he needs to—”

“We can argue about how Chris Pine is so much better for her after you tell me what I did,” Nursey interrupts. “I just. I don’t know what happened, and we’re not gonna be a good team if we can’t communicate.”

Fuck. Dex hunches over the wheel.

“Is it my arm dislocating all the time? Or do I snore, because you said I didn’t so you can’t be mad about that—”

“No, it’s—” _ Fuck. _ Dex can’t say it, not right now. There’s too much happening and nothing happening and it’s all fucked and just— 

“Well, can you at least tell me  _ something’s _ wrong,” Nursey says, reaching into the backseat. “Because something is, even if you don’t —  _ motherfucking fucker.” _

“What?”

Nursey retracts into himself. “Pull over, my fucking goddamn arm—”

Dex glances over and registers the look on his face, that he’s not messing around right now, something is seriously wrong, and eases them onto the shoulder o the road. 

“What happened,” Dex asks, but it’s pretty clear what happened. He doesn’t want to touch Nursey without Nursey asking. Or at least saying what it is first.

“I wanted some snacks,” Nursey says through his teeth, “and it just — fell out again.”

“Okay, just breathe, okay?” 

Dex reaches out uncertainly and Nursey all but yanks his arm out of place to get Dex’s hand on him. Dex inhales sharply.

“Sorry, it just  _ hurts.” _

“No, that’s not why,” Dex starts, then stops. “Just. Where do you want me?”

Nursey directs his hand like he did months ago and he  _ pushes _ and his arm goes back. Dex can see the second it’s relocated, not by watching the process itself but by the relief that passes over Nursey’s face. Without thinking, Dex smooths his forehead with his thumb. Without thinking, Dex traces the curve of his cheek.

“Oh,” Nursey says softly. “Won’t you tell me, please. What’d I do to you Dex?”

“Nothing,” Dex says. It comes out breathy and earnest. “You didn’t do anything.”

Nursey’s face closes off. “Dex, I just—”

“I didn’t think — and then, your shoulder, and my hands on you like this, Nurse.” Dex presses his hand against Nursey’s chest and closes his eyes so he doesn’t have to see what Nursey’s face looks like when he says  _ as a friend. _ “You do everything to me. Everything.”

Nursey doesn’t say anything. Dex takes a centering breath and pulls away.

“Hey,” Nursey whispers. “Will. Look at me for a second.” 

Dex does, and Nursey looks — he thinks Nursey looks like the sun coming up. Something soft shatters and reforms in his chest.

“Everything?” Nursey asks quietly.

Dex shrugs helplessly. “I sort of fell into it without planning on it.”

“If I had known,” Nursey says, smiling a little, “I would’ve dislocated my shoulder in front of you so much sooner.”

Dex shrugs again before the words register and then it’s like being tackled by a rhino. “Wait,” he says.

“Yeah, Dexy,” Nursey says simply. “You always put me back together. In all ways.”

Dex says, stunned, “I think Chowder actually has me beat on that,” and Nursey rolls his eyes. Dex clears his throat. “Um. I actually did some reading after the first time, and I read about a new post-relocation practice that a lot of doctors are swearing by.”

“And what’s that?”

“This,” Dex says, and kisses him. Nursey pulls him as close as they can be without accidentally hitting the horn or banging their knees on the center console and it’s cramped, actually, but it’s  _ Nursey _ . It’s Nursey. Dex laughs a little.

“What,” Nursey whispers, and they break apart.

“Nothing,” Dex whispers back. He threads their fingers together as he steers them back onto the road. “I just feel like something fell back into place.”

“Something good, hopefully.” Nursey kisses his knuckles.

Dex smiles. “Always good, when it’s you.”

Nursey kisses his knuckles again and says, softly, “That’s a fine.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Nursey smiles. “Pull over and make me.”

He does.

________________________

**Author's Note:**

> So this is kind of. I don't even know  
> we were talking about clumsy Nursey and somehow went into "what if Nursey constantly dislocated his arms and Dex put them back & you can tell their relationship progression from him offering to help" and then THAT turned into this, so yeah
> 
> Thanks for reading! this is my second NurseyDex fic, so pls yell about that with me in the comments below or [come find me on tumblr :)](https://ivecarvedawoodenheart.tumblr.com/)


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